Clo. Master Malvolio! Clo. Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits? Mal. Fool, there was never man so notoriously abused: I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art. Clo. But as well? then you are mad, indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool. Mal. They have here propertied me ; keep me in darkness, send ministers to me, asses, and do all they can to face me out of my wits. Clo. Advise you what you say: the minister is here,-Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the heavens restore! endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy vain bibble babble. Mal. Sir Topas, Clo. Maintain no words with him, good fellow. Mal. Good fool, help me to some light, and some paper; I tell thee, I am as well in my wits as any man in Illyria. Clo. Well-a-day,-that you were, sir! Mal. By this hand, I am: Good fool, some ink, paper, and light, and convey what I will set down to my lady; it shall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did. This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't: Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune Take, and give back affairs, and their despatch, Enter OLIVIA and a Priest. Oli. Blame not this haste of mine: If you mean Now, go with me, and with this holy man, --And That they may fairly note this act of mine! [Exeunt. ACT V. Clo. I will help you to't. But tell me true, are you not mad, indeed? or do you but counterfeit ? Mal. Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true. Clo. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman till I see SCENE I. The Street before Olivia's House. his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink. Enter Clown and FABIAN. Fab. Now, as thou lovest me, let me see his letter. Clo. Good master Fabian, grant me another re quest. Fab. Any thing. Clo. Do not desire to see this letter. Fab. That is, to give a dog, and, in recompense, desire my dog again. Enter DUKE, VIOLA, and Attendants. Clo. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends. Duke. Just the contrary; the better for thy friends. Duke. How can that be? Clo. Marry sir, they praise me, and make an ass the catastrophe. See Note on K. Henry V. Act. iv. Sc. 4. 6 i. e. intelligence. Mr. Steevens has referred to several passages which seem to imply that this word was used for oral intelligence. I find it thus in a letter from Elizabeth to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton among the Conway Papers. This beror came from you with great spede-We have heard his eredit and fynd your carefulness and diligence very great.' 7 i. e. reason. 8 Servants. 9 i. e. deceptious. 10 Chantry,' a little chapel, or particular altar in some cathedral or parochial church, endowed for the purpose of having masses sung therein for the souls of the founders. 11 Until, 5 The vice was the fool of the old moralities. He was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, a long coat, and a dagger of lath. One of his chief employments was to make sport with the devil, leaping on his back and belabouring him with his dagger, till he made him roar. The devil, however, always carried him off in the end. The moral was, that sin, which 12 Troth or fidelity. It should be remarked that this has the courage to make very merry with the devil, and was not an actual marriage, but a betrothing, affianc is allowed by him to take very great liberties, musting, or solemn promise of future marriage; anciently finally become his prey. This used also to be the regu- distinguished by the name of espousals. This has been lar end of Punch in the puppet show (who was the legi-established by Mr. Douce in his very interesting Illustimate successor of the old vice or iniquity,) until mo-trations of Shakspeare, where the reader will find much dern innovation, in these degenerate times, reversed curious matter on the subject, in a note on this passage. of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: Clo. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends. Duke. Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold. Clo. But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could make it another. Duke. O, you give me ill counsel. Clo. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let your flesh and blood obey it. Duke. Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer; there's another. Clo. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old saying is, the third pays for all; the triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure; or the bells of St. Bennet, sir, may put you in mind; One, two, three. Duke. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw if you will let your lady know, here to speak with her, and bring her along with you, it may awake my bounty further. am Clo. Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty, till I come again. I go, sir; but I would not have you to think, that my desire of having is the sin of covetousness; but, as you say, sir, let your bounty take a nap, I will awake it anon. [Exit Clown. Enter ANTONIO and Officers. Vio. Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me. A bawbling vessel was he captain of, That took the Phoenix and her fraught,3 from Candy: Duke. Notable pirate! thou salt-water thief! Aat. Orsino, noble sir, 1 So, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion :- Moor. Away, away. 4 Inattentive to his character or condition, like a desperate man. Did I expose myself, pure for his love, Enter OLIVIA and Attendants. Duke. Here comes the countess; now heaven But more of that anon. -Take him aside. Cesario, you do not keep promise with me. Vio. Madam? Duke. Gracious Olivia,- lord, Cesario?--Good my Oli. Still so constant, lord. Duke. What! to perverseness? you uncivil lady, Duke. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, [Going. ; To spite a raven's heart within a dove. [Following. Oli. Where goes Cesario? Oli. Ah me, detested! how am I beguil❜d! chief of a band of robbers. Theogenes and Chariclea falling into their hands, Thyamis falls in love with ChaQueen. No, no, says I; and twice away says stay.riclea, and would have married her. But, being attackSir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon the thought in the ed by a stronger band of robbers, he was in such fear Sixty-third Stanza of Astrophel and Stella. for his mistress that he causes her to be shut into a cave 2 Mischievous, destructive. 3 Freight. with his treasure. It was customary with those barbarians, when they despaired of their own safety, first to make away with those whom they held most dear, and Tooke has so admirably accounted for the appli-desired for companions in the next life. Thyamis, cation of the epithet dear by our ancient writers to any therefore, benetted round with enemics, raging with object which excites a sensation of hurt, pain, and con- love, jealousy, and anger, went to his cave, and calling sequently of anxiety, solicitude, care, earnestness, aloud in the Egyptian tongue, so soon as he heard himthat I shall refer to it as the best comment upon the ap-self answered towards the cave's mouth by a Grecian, parently opposite uses of the word in our great poet. making to the person by the direction of her voice, he caught her by the hair with his left hand, and (suppos 7 This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis. The storying her to be Chariclea) with his right hand plunged his is related in the Aethiopics of Heliodorus. He was the sword into her breast. 6 Dull, gross. Vlo. Who does beguile you? who does do you | Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown. wrong? Here comes Sir Toby halting, you shall hear more: but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did. Duke. Oli. Hast thou forgot thyself! Is it so long!Call forth the holy father. [Exit an Attendant. Come away. [TO VIOLA. Oli. Whither, my lord?-Cesario, husband, stay. Duke. Husband! Oli. Ay, husband; Can he that deny? Duke. Her husband, sirrah? Vio. No, my lord, not I. Oli. Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear, That makes thee strangle thy propriety: Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up; Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art As great as that thou fear'st,-O, welcome father! Re-enter Attendant and Priest. Father, I charge thee by thy reverence, Priest. A contract of eternal bond of love. Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;2 And all the ceremony of this compact Seal'd in my function, by my testimony: Duke. How now, gentleman? how is't with you Sir To. That's all one; he has hurt me, and there's an end on't.-Sot, didst see Dick surgeon, sot? his Clo. O he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; eyes were set at eight i'the morning. Sir To. Then he's a rogue and a passy-measures pavin; I hate a drunken rogue. Oli. Away with him: Who hath made this ha vock with them? Sir And. I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we'll be dressed together. Sir To. Will you help?-An ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave? a thin-faced knave, a gull? Oli. Get him to bed and let his hurt be look'd to. [Exeunt Clown, SIR TOBY, and SIR ANDREW. Enter SEBASTIAN. Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have hurt your king I must have done no less, with wit and safety. You throw a strange regard upon me, and Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my By that I do perceive it hath offended you; grave I have travell'd but two hours. Duke. O, thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be, When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case ?3 Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow, That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow? Farewell, and take her; but direct thy feet, Where thou and I henceforth may never meet. Vio. My lord, I do protest,Oli. O, do not swear; Hold little faith, though thou hast too much fear. Enter SIR ANDRew Ague-cheeK, with his head broke. Sir And. He has broke my head across, and has given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too: for the love of God, your help: I had rather than forty pound, I were at home. Oli. Who has done this, Sir Andrew? Sir And. The count's gentleman, one Cesario: we took him for a coward, but he's the very devil incardinate. Duke. My gentleman, Cesario? Sir And. Od's lifelings, here he is :-You broke my head for nothing; and that that I did, I was set on to do't by Sir Toby. Vio. Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you: You drew your sword upon me, without cause; But I bespake you fair, and hurt you not. Sir And. If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me; think you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb. 1 i. c. suppress, or disown thy property. 2 In ancient espousals the man received as well as gave a ring. 8 So, in Cary's Present State of England, 1626. Queen Elizabeth asked a knight named Young, how he liked a company of brave ladies? He answered, as I like my silver haired conies at home, the cases are far better than the bodies.' 4 Otherways. 5 The parin was a grave Spanish dance. Sir John Hawkins derives it from paro a peacock, and says that every pavin had its galliard, a lighter kind of air formcd out of the former. Thus, in Middleton's More Dissemblers beside Women: 'I can dance nothing but ill favour'dly, A strain or two of passe measures gulliard, By which it appears that the passe measure puran, and the passe measure galliard were only two different measures of one dance. Sir Toby therefore means by this quaint expression that the surgeon is a rogue and a Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows Duke. One face, one voice one habit, and two persons; A natural perspective, that is, and is not. Ant. Sebastian are you? Seb. Fear'st thou that, Antonio? Ant. How have you made division of yourself?— Than these two creatures. An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin Which is Sebastian? Oli. Most wonderful! Seb. Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow. grave solemn corcomb. In the first act of the play he has shown himself well acquainted with the various kinds of dance. Shakspeare's characters are always consistent, and even in drunkenness preserve the traits of character which distinguished them when sober. 6 A perspective formerly meant a glass that assisted the sight in any way. The several kinds in use in Shakspeare's time are enumerated in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, b. xiii. c. 19, where that alluded to by the Duke is thus described: There be glasses also wherein one man may see another man's image and not his own'-that optical illusion may be meant, which is called anamorphosis:- where that which is, is not,' or appears, in a different position, another thing. may also explain a passage in Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2: "Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid. Vide also K. Richard II. Act ii. Se1, and note there : 'Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon 7 Out of charity, tell me. This Vis. Anied that day when Viola from her birth Had number'a thirteen years. Seb. O, that record is lively in my soul! But nature to her bias drew in that. [To VIOLA. Thou never shouldst love woman like to me. Duke. Hath Give me thy hand; And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds. Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on shore my maid's garments: he, upon some action, Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit, A gentleman and follower of my lady's. O. He shall enlarge him:-Fetch Malvolio hither: And yet, alas, now I remember me, A most extracting frenzy of mine own Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do; he has here writ a letter to you, I should have given it to you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered. Ga. Open it, and read it. Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman :-By the lord, Madam,Oli. How now! art thou mad? Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vor. 4 Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits. Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear. Oli. Read it you, sirrah. [TO FABIAN. Fab. [Reads] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on ; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-used Malvolio. on, To think me as well a sister as a wife, Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer. Your master quits you [To VIOLA ;] and, for your service done him, So much against the mettles of your sex, Oli. A sister?-you are she. letter: You must not now deny it is your hand, Why you have given me such clear lights of favour; Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing, And in such forms which here were presuppos'd Fab. And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled11 thee! Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve greatthem. I ness, and some have greatness thrown upon 7 Fool. 8 Thou is here understood: then cam'st thou in smiling.' 9 Practice is a deceit, an insidious stratagem. So in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew. Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.' 10 Importanacy. 11 Bued is cheated. See Note on the first Scene of K. Rich. II. was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir; Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. Of our dear souls.-Mean time, sweet sister, Clo. When that I was a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth every day. But when I came to man's estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 1 1. e. Shall serve, agree, be convenient. 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, But when I came, alas! to wive, But when I came unto my bed, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A great while ago the world begun, 【Ezit. and This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soli loquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Ólivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contriv ed to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life. JOHNSON MEASURE FOR MEASURE. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. SHAKSPEARE took the fable of this play from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published, in 1578, of which this is The Argument." special case, although he favoured her much, would not grant her suit. Andrugio (disguised among the company,) sorrowing the grief of his sister, bewrayed his safety, and craved pardon. The king to renown the virtues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos. The circumstances of this rare history, in action lively followeth.' forthwith he hasted to do justice on Promos: whose judgment was to marry Cassandra, to repair her crased honour; which done, for his heinous offence, he should In the city of Julio (sometimes under the dominion lose his head. This marriage solemnized, Cassandra of Corvinus King of Hungary and Bohemia,) there was tied in the greatest bonds of affection to her husband, a law, that what man soever committed adultery should became an earnest suitor for his life: the king tender. lose his head, and the woman offender should wearing the general benefit of the commonweal before her some disguised apparel, during her life, to make her infamously noted. This severe law, by the favour of some merciful magistrate, became little regarded, until the time of Lord Promos's authority; who convicting a young gentleman named Andrugio of incontinency, condemned both him and his minion to the execution of this statute. Andrugio had a very virtuous and beautiful gentlewoman to his sister, named Cassandra. Cassandra, to enlarge her brother's life, submitted an humble petition to the Lord Promos. Promos regarding her good behaviour, and fantasying her great beauty, was much delighted with the sweet order of her talk; and doing good, that evil might come thereof, for a time he reprieved her brother: but, wicked man, turning his liking into unlawful lust; he set down the spoil of her honour, ransom for her brother's life: chaste Cassandra, abhorring both him and his suit, by no persuasion would yield to this ransom. But in fine, won by the importunity of her brother (pleading for life,) upon these conditions she agreed to Promos: First, that he should pardon her brother, and after marry her. Promos, as fearless in promise, as careless in performance, with solemn vow signed her conditions; but worse than any infidel, his will satisfied, he performed neither the one nor the other for to keep his authority unspotted with favour, and to prevent Cassandra's clamours, he commanded the jailer secretly to present Cassandra with her brother's head. The jailer [touched] with the outeries of Andrugio (abhorring Promos's lewdness,) by the providence of God provided thus for his safety. He presented Cassandra with a felon's head newly executed; who knew it not, being mangled, from her brother's (who was set at liberty by the jailer.) [She] was so aggrieved at this treachery, that, at the point to kill herself, she spared that stroke to be avenged of Promos: and devising a way, she concluded, to make her fortunes known to the king. She, executing this resolution, was so highly favoured of the king, that Whetstone, however, has not afforded a very correct analysis of his play, which contains a mixture of comic scenes, between a bawd, a pimp, felons, &c. together with some serious situations which are not described. A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which in the hands of Whetstone produced little more than barren insipidity, under the culture of Shakspeare became fertile of entertainment. The curious reader may see the old play of Promos and Cassandra among Six old plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c.' published by Mr. Steevens, printed for 8. Leacroft, Charing Cross. The piece exhibits an almost complete embryo of Measure for Measure; yet the hints on which it is formed are so slight, that it is nearly as im possible to detect them, as it is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak. The story origi. nally came from the 'Hecatommithi' of Cinthio. Decad 8, novel 5, and is repeated in the Tragic Histories of Belleforest. "This play," says Mr. Hazlitt, "is as full of genius as it is of wisdom. Yet there is an original sin in the nature of the subject, which prevents us from taking a cordial interest in it. 'The height of moral argument,' which the author has maintained in the intervals of passion, or blended with the more powerful impulses of nature, is hardly surpassed in any of his plays. But there is a general want of passion, the affections are at a stand; our sympathies are repulsed and defeated in all directions." Isabella is a lovely example of female purity and vi |